How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars
The Snapchat Story
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Narrated by:
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Billy Gallagher
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By:
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Billy Gallagher
About this listen
This audiobook is the improbable and exhilarating story of the rise of Snapchat from a frat boy fantasy to a multi-billion dollar internet unicorn that has dramatically changed the way we communicate.
In 2013 Evan Spiegel, the brash CEO of the social network Snapchat, and his co-founder Bobby Murphy stunned the press when they walked away from a three-billion-dollar offer from Facebook: how could an app teenagers use to text dirty photos dream of a higher valuation? Was this hubris, or genius? In How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars, tech journalist Billy Gallagher takes us inside the rise of one of Silicon Valley's hottest start-ups.
Snapchat began as a late-night dorm room revelation, the brainchild of Stanford English major Reggie Brown who was nursing regrets about photos he had sent. After an epic feud between best friends, Brown lost the company to Spiegel, who has gone on to make a name for himself as a visionary - if ruthless - CEO worth billions, linked to celebrities like Taylor Swift and his fiancée, Miranda Kerr.
A fellow Stanford undergrad and fraternity brother of the company's founding trio, Gallagher has covered Snapchat from the start. He brings unique access to a company Bloomberg Business called "a cipher in the Silicon Valley technology community."
Gallagher offers insight into challenges Snapchat faces as it transitions from a playful app to one of the tech industry's preeminent public companies. In the tradition of great business narratives, How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars offers the definitive account of a company whose goal is no less than to remake the future of entertainment.
©2018 William Gallagher (P)2018 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In September 2014, a Chinese company that most Americans had never heard of held the largest IPO in history - bigger than Google, Facebook, and Twitter combined. Alibaba, now the world's largest ecommerce company, mostly escaped Western notice for over 10 years, while building a customer base larger than Amazon's and handling the bulk of ecommerce transactions in China. How did it happen? And what was it like to be along for such a revolutionary ride?
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Not bad
- By Daniel on 09-12-15
By: Porter Erisman
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The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs
- By: Carmine Gallo
- Narrated by: Sean Mangan
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, best-selling author Carmine Gallo reveals the qualities that make the Apple co-founder the most innovative leader in business today. Each principle is backed with research, quotes, and first-person interviews with experts and business leaders, as well as specific ideas for applying those principles to every business, large or small.
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awful
- By Thomas on 10-15-11
By: Carmine Gallo
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All the Rave
- The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster
- By: Joseph Menn
- Narrated by: John Rubinstein
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive inside account of the file-sharing revolution that overthrew the music industry, All the Rave reveals the family betrayal, greed, and mismanagement that hijacked one the most fundamental innovations of the Internet era. Named one of the three best books of 2003 by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., All the Rave has been out of print until now and unavailable in most formats. Author and veteran technology journalist Joseph Menn also wrote 2010's Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords who are Bringing Down the Internet.
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The Far-reaching Karma of Napster
- By Susie on 04-29-13
By: Joseph Menn
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Alibaba
- The House That Jack Ma Built
- By: Duncan Clark
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In just a decade and a half, Jack Ma, a man from modest beginnings who started out as an English teacher, founded Alibaba and built it into one of the world's largest companies, an e-commerce empire on which hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend. Alibaba's $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the largest global IPO ever. A Rockefeller of his age who is courted by CEOs and presidents around the world, Jack is an icon for China's booming private sector.
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Strange: Best part of story happens "off-screen"
- By Tristan on 09-02-16
By: Duncan Clark
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The Filter Bubble
- What the Internet Is Hiding from You
- By: Eli Pariser
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years: the rise of personalization.
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Now in the top 3 best books I've ever read
- By Brian Esserlieu on 05-26-11
By: Eli Pariser
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Friend of a Friend...
- Understanding the Hidden Networks That Can Transform Your Life and Your Career
- By: David Burkus
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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What if the best way to grow your network isn't by introducing yourself to strangers at cocktail parties, handing out business cards, or signing up for the latest online tool, but by developing a better understanding of the existing network that's already around you? We know that it's essential to reach out and build your network. But did you know that it's actually your weaker or former contacts who will be the most helpful to you? Or that many of our best efforts at meeting new people simply serve up the same old opportunities we already have?
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The reality of human networks - How to Navigate, Create & Use them!
- By T.Om on 11-07-18
By: David Burkus
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UnMarketing, Second Edition
- Everything Has Changed and Nothing is Different
- By: Scott Stratten, Alison Stratten
- Narrated by: Allison Stratten, Scott Stratten
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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UnMarketing shows you how to unlearn the old ways and consistently attract and engage the right customers. You'll stop just pushing out your message and praying that it sticks somewhere. Potential and current customers want to be listened to and validated and have a platform to be heard - especially online. With UnMarketing, you'll create a relationship with your customers and make yourself the logical choice for their needs.
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Authentic and genuine people
- By Karin Bertelsen on 06-30-20
By: Scott Stratten, and others
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Dream Year
- Make the Leap from a Job You Hate to a Life You Love
- By: Ben Arment
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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What if someone could guide you, step-by-step, as you identify, plan, and launch your dream career - in just one year. That's what Ben Arment does in his transformative coaching class, which has helped hundreds of people reinvent their lives to enjoy greater enthusiasm and fulfillment while also making a living. Now he's sharing his best insights, advice, and inspiring true stories in Dream Year. You'll find out how people just like you are discovering (or rediscovering) what they were truly born to do, then following a proven process to make it real.
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Motivational!
- By ajanicad on 03-21-15
By: Ben Arment
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Becoming Facebook
- The 10 Challenges That Defined the Company That's Disrupting the World
- By: Mike Hoefflinger
- Narrated by: Nicholas Techosky
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Facebook's founding is legend: In a Harvard dorm, wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg invented a new way to connect with friends...and the rest is history. But for the people who actually molded this great idea into a game-changing $300 billion company, the experience was far more tumultuous and uncertain than we might expect. Mike Hoefflinger was one of those Facebook insiders.
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mainly a tribute to the success of FB
- By Anonymous User on 10-07-18
By: Mike Hoefflinger
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Broad Band
- The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet
- By: Claire L. Evans
- Narrated by: Claire L. Evans
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Women are not ancillary to the history of technology; they turn up at the very beginning of every important wave. But they've often been hidden in plain sight, their inventions and contributions touching our lives in ways we don't even realize. Vice reporter and YACHT lead singer Claire L. Evans finally gives these unsung female heroes their due with her insightful social history of the Broad Band, the women who made the Internet what it is today. Evans shows us how these women built and colored the technologies we can't imagine life without.
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Inspiring
- By Jean on 03-29-18
By: Claire L. Evans
What listeners say about How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dustin
- 07-08-18
Snappy Senses
Billy does a phenomenal job of portraying Evan as such a key component of the Snap brand. Really gives an “Ave snap user” an inside look at what the potential is like for Snap and how others view Snap.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-04-18
Not a very enlightening book, but fun to listen.
The author gives a overview of the life of the founders, and their journey, but not to deep. Not near the quality of the social network movie. I don't think is worth the investment, but is best then listening to some podcast.
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- Simranjit Singh
- 09-05-22
Simranjit Singh
I will build a much bigger and better company than Snapchat. Very thankful to the Arthur of this book.
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- Metapon Amorntirasan
- 10-21-24
Too monotone
It’s just a boring lesson with the voice. The story is too in detail i think
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- Jorge Hoppe
- 01-25-24
Great story but poorly narrated
The author narrates poorly skipping over words constantly. A professional narrator would make this better.
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- RICH D
- 02-24-18
Informative Book -- Could not stop listening
Any additional comments?
I had a somewhat negative connotation of Snapchat and its founder because I only knew what I had read in the major stories about the company over the past several years. This book objectively goes from the very beginnings of the company through to mid-2017. The author went to school with the founder so he seemed to have access to common friends who work(ed) at the company to use as sources.The book is similar to the Hatching Twitter book, but I liked this one better because it was read by the author. The other book was read by someone who did different voices for everyone, which is distracting.In a way, this book reminded me of a Malcolm Gladwell book. Which is a great thing. There were many parts where it had "In order to fully understand x, it is necessary to go back and look at y". And we ended up with interesting backstories of related companies and trends and even a pretty thorough rise and fall story about a company called "Clinkle".The other good thing about the author's narration is he talks so fast that I didn't have to up the playback speed to 1.25x. This would probably be a 10+ hour book read by a professional reader.Highly recommend.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David K. Jackson
- 05-15-21
Bad Luck...
Good story, but This book was published about 9 months before Kylie Jenner cost Snapchat 1 billion dollars in a day... after years of unprecedented growth!.. they haven’t regained market share to date. that’s bad luck.
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- Bamagrad03
- 03-18-18
Good start, bland finish, hero worship abound
I have to echo the sentiments of another reviewer from Amazon, the book starts of decent and devolves into hero worship pretty quickly. It also feels like the author lacked material for an entire book, so the back half was meandering without much depth.
There are also a couple of other things I didn't love about the book. First, the writing is rather pedestrian. It really feels like Billy Gallagher isn't a seasoned writer. That's not to say it's bad, just basic.
The bigger issue I had is the one I often have with audio books: the author choosing to narrate. I understand the desire to have a youthful voice given the notion that Snapchat the product is targeted towards a younger demographic. But a book about Snapchat the business isn't necessarily the same target. Billy's voice and style just doesn't hold up to an entire book. I'll never understand why writers opt for themselves as narrators of audio books if they aren't seasoned orators.
I consume start up books like oxygen. And this one wasn't bad. It's a solid C+ in my opinion. But I couldn't get past the lack of 2nd half depth and fanboyism to fully enjoy it. I'd still recommend it, but I'd do so with the previously mentioned notes.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Robert ONeill
- 03-16-19
Definitive journal on social media
I had no interest in Snapchat and have never used it HOWEVER this writer is an excellent journalist and narrator and does not waste words. This is fair and balanced honest and objective. If anyone was thinking about developing or improving a social media platform this is a must listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Andrew S.
- 04-17-18
Extraordinary story worthy of multiple listens!
What made the experience of listening to How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars the most enjoyable?
The author is fantastic at describing the surroundings with enough detail to paint the image. However, he's not too verbose, so it's easy to be engaged and get caught up in his story.
What was one of the most memorable moments of How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars?
The build-up of tension among the founders over their first summer -- some very tense moments.
Did the narration match the pace of the story?
This was my only issue. The narrator (I think it was the author himself) should've had someone else do the read. At times (especially when describing an apps user-interface that I've never seen) the narrator was just reading too fast so words were blending together and I had to rewind to understand him. I'd advise him to listen to the narration style of Jonathan Todd Ross for his future books (I really hope he writes another - I'm 100% in, no matter what subject matter)
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Ideas are worthless but execution is priceless
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